Compressor with Omni - Inserts or Patchbay?
 

I'm upgrading(?) my 192 for an Omni with the HDX exchange. I have my dual channel compressor presently hooked up in my patch bay and cable when I want it inserted after a preamp.

The Omni has inserts dedicated for a compressor which make it easy to engage by just pressing the Omni's insert button. But I think I lose flexibility if I want to compress prerecorded tracks or the mix.

Some advice....do I keep it as a patchbay item or take advantage of the Omni's inserts?

tia

Re: Compressor with Omni - Inserts or Patchbay?
 

The inserts on the Omni are only for using with the built in preamps. It routes the signal directly from the preamp to your inserted device, then back in before anything hits the a/d converter.

It will not show up as an output in Protools, so there's no way to use it that way with pre-recorded tracks, etc.

You would need to use one of the line outs and line ins of the Omni, or your Patchbay.

Re: Compressor with Omni - Inserts or Patchbay?
 

Thanks for your reply.

My (limited) understanding of the Omni is that the Mic Pres, Line ins and Inst ins ALL use the inserts and not just the Pre's. If so, can't I just route outs 3-4 to the Omni's Ins 3-4 and use the compressor insert and record the resulting mix?

Re: Compressor with Omni - Inserts or Patchbay?
 

I'm not sure I understand your question. Or we might be saying the same thing.

The only way to use your compressor on a pre-recorded track is to come out of any of the line outputs 1-8 (excluding whichever ones your monitors are hooked up to). Then you would go to your compressor and come back in through any of the line inputs 1 thru 4 (including 1 and 2 which can be set to line in).

The main problem is that when you are trying to use it when mixing, for a pre-recorded track, you have to use one of the available outputs that show up in the Protools software. The insert jacks on channels 1 and 2 are not available as outputs in the Protools software, so they would not be available to do that. There's no way to route any tracks to them. As mentioned, they are only for recording something on the way in.

So yes, you can use outputs 3 and 4 and come back in to inputs 3 and 4. But this has nothing to do with the insert function on 1 and 2.

I hope I've understood correctly what you were asking.

Re: Compressor with Omni - Inserts or Patchbay?
 

I have no doubt you understand what I'm asking. I'm not sure I do ;)

Most of most compressor use is tracking and I like the Omni Insert option for that. Very quick and convenient and easy to do a real bypass whereas if I have the compressor plugged around the patch bay, I can't really bypass it since its in the circuit and instead I have to re patch everything back and forth to hear the difference.

I thought, and please correct me in my thinking, that I can use a compressor in the omni inserts, take a track and set the output to, say, Out 3-4, take those outs from my patch bay and plug them into the Omni inputs, say, 1 and 2, arm a new track in PT set to ins 1&2, and record the compressed mix.

I'm sure I've left out the part that shows I can't do this but I don't know where my logic is flawed.

thanks again for looking at this.

Re: Compressor with Omni - Inserts or Patchbay?
 

Well, I don't actually own the unit yet, but I'm getting one soon and I've had a chance to experiment with one.

It sounds like you want to come out of Protools, out Omni 3 and 4, and then come back into the insert return of 1 and 2, instead of the line input of 1 and 2. If this worked, it would allow you to switch in and out the insert on the Omni.

I've re-read this portion of the manual, and I don't know if this will work or not. It says something about the sends always being active, but I don't know if that applies to the returns also. In other words, I'm not sure if the returns are active if the send is not also being used (i.e., if it breaks the signal, similar to how a patch bay might do certain things).

So you may have to wait and try it when you get the unit.

Re: Compressor with Omni - Inserts or Patchbay?
 

" and then come back into the insert return of 1 and 2, instead of the line input of 1 and 2."

Actually I thought of going back from Omni outs 3-4 to Omni INPUT 1&2. If the track is record enabled for input 1&2, will it get back to PT and record the compressed inserted signal?

Mine won't come until the HW exchange to HDX is ready and available.